Below is an extract from one of my uncle’s (Peter Grobler) recent emails:
Someone has said that God allows us to hit the bottom in order to discover that He is the rock at the bottom! That until we find Him “down there”, we haven’t found Him at all. For Israel, the wilderness was their bottom – and also the place in which they began to see… The wilderness breaks us, but draws us to dependence on Him. On the mountain top we’re overwhelmed by His presence. In the wilderness we’re overwhelmed by His absence. In both places we find we’re overwhelmed by who His is. That He is both our richest desire and our most desperate need. It’s the wilderness that detoxifies us of our self-sufficiency and complacency, that we might depend on Him. Israel needed that, and so do we. Incredible as it seems, Israel became so used to living in slavery they were angry that Moses would free them (Ex.5:21). The wilderness urges us from complacency, from the desire to be left alone to our devices and desires, our safety zone, that we may experience the brokenness without which we cannot trust Him – “If this job is going to be done, You will have to do it through me. I’ll trust You.”
Samuel Rutherford, the 17th century theologian, wrote while in prison (and suffering so), “If you should see a man shut up in a closed room idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then you would open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.” So often its “the wilderness” that blows out the lamps, and so prepares us for the light of heaven. And so begins the paradox – “that when I am weak, then I am strong.” That the wilderness is FOR me. That until He comes again, life will always be partly mountain top, partly wilderness. That no single disaster will ever be without His grace. That the same sunshine that melts the butter, hardens the clay. That the cold that freezes the food, also preserves it. That in all things is found the touch, the hand, the heart, the sublime paradox: that the Father of light is found even in the darkness. …(W)e worship an absolute God, who is absolutely holy, absolutely present….. and that though each day comes with good and bad, He is always good. Though light and dark, He is always light. Sorrow and joy – He is the fullness of joy – that He is not yes and no, but always yes!
Someone has said that God allows us to hit the bottom in order to discover that He is the rock at the bottom! That until we find Him “down there”, we haven’t found Him at all. For Israel, the wilderness was their bottom – and also the place in which they began to see… The wilderness breaks us, but draws us to dependence on Him. On the mountain top we’re overwhelmed by His presence. In the wilderness we’re overwhelmed by His absence. In both places we find we’re overwhelmed by who His is. That He is both our richest desire and our most desperate need. It’s the wilderness that detoxifies us of our self-sufficiency and complacency, that we might depend on Him. Israel needed that, and so do we. Incredible as it seems, Israel became so used to living in slavery they were angry that Moses would free them (Ex.5:21). The wilderness urges us from complacency, from the desire to be left alone to our devices and desires, our safety zone, that we may experience the brokenness without which we cannot trust Him – “If this job is going to be done, You will have to do it through me. I’ll trust You.”
Samuel Rutherford, the 17th century theologian, wrote while in prison (and suffering so), “If you should see a man shut up in a closed room idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then you would open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.” So often its “the wilderness” that blows out the lamps, and so prepares us for the light of heaven. And so begins the paradox – “that when I am weak, then I am strong.” That the wilderness is FOR me. That until He comes again, life will always be partly mountain top, partly wilderness. That no single disaster will ever be without His grace. That the same sunshine that melts the butter, hardens the clay. That the cold that freezes the food, also preserves it. That in all things is found the touch, the hand, the heart, the sublime paradox: that the Father of light is found even in the darkness. …(W)e worship an absolute God, who is absolutely holy, absolutely present….. and that though each day comes with good and bad, He is always good. Though light and dark, He is always light. Sorrow and joy – He is the fullness of joy – that He is not yes and no, but always yes!
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